Gord Deval holds,
or has held over one hundred records, both nationally
and internationally, including several world records.
Established North American records in five decades of
tournament casting. Won North American All-Round Senior
Championship fourteen times.
 | Perennial Canadian
Senior Casting Champion. |
| Sixty years of
competitive tournament fly and bait casting. |
| Holds, or has held
every Canadian distance fly and bait casting title. |
He was one of the founders of
the International Casting Federation, the world
governing body in the sport. He has been the president
of the Ontario Fly and Bait Casting Association since the
fifties, while organizing the first Canadian Casting
Association and acting as its president.
Successfully competed in the
first World's Fly and Bait Casting Championships in
1957, then went on to represent Canada fourteen more
times in successive world championships. He has also
competed thirty two times in the North American
Championships, winning many titles and awards along the
way. Deval has been the recipient of Ontario's Athletic
Achievement Award every year since this special
recognition became available.
He retired completely from the
competitive side of the sport from 1957 through to 1974,
He did this in order to devote more time to* his four
children and practice his second love, fishing. Out of
competition entirely until 1974 - winning the majority
of his awards and titles since returning to competition
in '74.
Deval has been a qualified casting instructor since
1949, beginning with the old Toronto Anglers and Hunters
Association and at present with his Scarborough Fly and
Bait Casting Association. This club was started by Deval
in 1985 and has * produced champions in every category
in casting, with its members *collecting * over three
hundred medals, trophies and awards in its seventeen*
year tenure. In 1995 Deval and his club hosted the North
American Championships in the City of Scarborough for
the first time, agreed by most of the participants to
have been one of the best of these events ever held.
Deval estimates that he has personally taught over a
thousand anglers and tournament casters the fine points
of the sport.
He also formed and taught the
first casting team to compete in the distance casting
events, internationally, for Canada in 1957. After his
retirement in 1957, interest in tournament distance
casting in Canada came to a virtual standstill,
remaining in the doldrums until 1974 when he was coaxed
out of retirement. He subsequently rebuilt interest in
both distance casting and international competition. He
taught and coached almost every member of Canada's
international casting teams, from the sport's resurgence
in 1975 until the present.
Deval has held the Canadian
All-Round Fly and Bait Casting title, on and off since
1950, practically owning the All-Round Distance Fly and
Bait Casting title over that same period. He has
qualified for the select All American team numerous
times over the years after being the first Canadian to
ever win that honour.
In addition to his casting,
fishing and cooking seminars, Deval also teaches rod
building and fly tying. He is one of only three or four
in North America, who are qualified to teach the art of
split-bamboo rod building incorporating a hollow and
fluted design. Using this skill he was able to design
and build the world's lightest, practical split-cane fly
rod.
A collection of his personally
tied trout flies was presented to Viscount Alexander,
the then Governor General of Canada, on behalf of the
Toronto Anglers and Hunters Association back in the
fifties and he has since taught many hundreds of others
the intricacies of fly tying.
He has developed numerous
casting and fishing aids over the years, some of which
were, and still are being successfully marketed. His
movies on trout fishing have been viewed all over the
world, even having been borrowed by the Government of
Quebec to be shown in an international tourist
exposition. Of course, there have been many radio and
television appearances along the way, with casting,
fishing, fish-cookery demonstrations and seminars also
dotting his varied career. He has also written many
magazine articles and topped this off with six books in
the last five years. Four of these are about fishing,
with his first two books, 'Fishin' Hats' and 'Fishin'
Tales' still selling well in Canada from coast to coast.
Another of his works to be released this year should be
just about the best all-round book ever written about
casting and fishing. It is titled 'Casting About With
Gord Deval'. His most recent work, Fishing for Brookies,
Browns and ‘Bows is already in its second print.
In 1991 Deval was invited by
New Brunswick to organize and conduct the angling and
casting clinics at the first ever *Miramichi River
Atlantic Salmon Festival. In 1992 he also conducted a
similar, but smaller clinic and exhibition of trick
casting at Scarborough's Bridlewood Mall and the
Scarborough Town Centre. These were both extremely
successful ventures, resulting in return invitations.
Deval was also honoured in 1992 by the City of
Scarborough with a special award for his service and
dedication to his sport and the city over the years. As
already mentioned, in 1995 Deval and his club hosted the
North American Fly and Bait Casting championships,
attended by over eighty competitors. It was voted the
most successful tournament in the past thirty years.
Despite the rigours of running this event, he managed to
establish a new record in the two hand distance spinning
event - 428’. Deval *believes that the biggest honour
he has had to date was being selected to receive the
Bi-Centennial Award of Merit and Medal presented to him
by the Mayor of the City, the Honourable Frank Faubert,
in 1996. This was recognition as one of a very exclusive
group, the top 200 Scarborough citizens to have brought
honour to the city over its history during the past 200
years.
Deval, primarily a trout
fisherman for sixty-five of his seventy-two years, has
flirted with several fishing world records along the
way, and still teaches the gospel of clean waters and
habitat - trout fishing - to hundreds of anglers every
year. It has generally been accepted that his 28 ½”,
11 ¼ lb. brook trout is the largest ever taken on a
fly. With almost a thousand medals and trophies *(both
National and International) along with the Ontario
Athletic Achievement Award which he has won every year
since its inception, as well as all the credentials
listed herein *and the fine representation he has given
our country over the years, Gord Deval feels he has much
to offer potential sponsors and corporations wishing to
utilize his talents.
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